Episode 456: Urinal Cup

FromBack to Work

Start listening View podcast show

Episode 456: Urinal Cup

FromBack to Work

ratings:

Length:

75 minutes

Released:

Dec 18, 2019

Format:

Podcast episode

Description

DISCUSSED: Dan presents a curious new bathroom project; some thoughts on OCD, procrastination, and empathy; praise for Fury Road, Inglourious Basterds, and Dunkirk; Dan has follow-up on his awesome new laptop and the state of Unix shells; Merlin makes the case for occasionally getting unused to things.

Released:

Dec 18, 2019

Format:

Podcast episode

Titles in the series (100)

Back to Work is an award winning talk show with Merlin Mann and Dan Benjamin discussing productivity, communication, work, barriers, constraints, tools, and more. Hosted by Merlin Mann & Dan Benjamin.

Skip carousel

19: Corner Casey Kasem: Merlin and Dan talk about mindful tool adoption, screwdriver museums, why Vi users may (or may not) be cannibalistic insects—plus debate on whether a home video of a toy horse falling down in someone's bathroom is about Humanity. Also, Dan effs with Merli by Back to Work
83 min listen
1: Alligator in the Bathroom: In the inaugural episode of Back to Work, Merlin Mann and Dan Benjamin discuss why they’re doing this show, getting back to work instead of buying berets, the lizard brain, and compare the Shadow of the Mouse to San Francisco, and eventually get to some p by Back to Work
89 min listen
10: At Last the 'Inspiration' Show by Back to Work
82 min listen
7: Vocational Wheel: Merlin Mann and Dan Benjamin relate to Richard–a listener in the middle of a quarter life crisis working jobs he doesn't like–with stories from their pasts, suggestions to combat the cascade of seriousness, and some first steps for breaking out of the voc by Back to Work
82 min listen
12: Chewie's Medal is Not Canonical: Merlin Mann has some "followup" before he and Dan Benjamin discuss entrusting your agency to others, how to reclaim it, and picking the right balance between expertise and challenge instead of fixing your metadata. by Back to Work
65 min listen
4: Failing with Style: Merlin Mann and Dan Benjamin talk about trying to change other people, how things really aren’t that bad, balancing fear or being driven by fear, leaving capacity for when you get The Pitch, procrastination (eventually), and giving yourself permission to by Back to Work
63 min listen
28: One Little Red Egg: Dan and Merlin talk about kid stuff, including the threat of Hot Wheels® donation, the inevitability of skinned knees, the nefariousness of the hospital gift basket, plus an important way every Dad has to go pro. by Back to Work
86 min listen
14: Velocity of Disappointment: Merlin Mann joins Dan Benjamin to talk about problems that are impossible, problems that are boring, problems that you're scared of, and why you need to differentiate between fear and anxiety so you can be scared of something interesting. by Back to Work
68 min listen
6: Expectational Debt: Merlin Mann is back from Webstock and ready to recap with Dan Benjamin, which leads back to caring first, performance and fear, meditation, hypnotherapy, and why you really need the hard answer instead just more tips. by Back to Work
64 min listen
13: The Kid's Great: Dan and Merlin talk about "Cranking" - Merlin's latest post at 43folders.com. by Back to Work
90 min listen
9: Out of Scope!: Dan and Merlin improvise topics this week and get from Synechode, NY to dopamine, being scared and being safe, believing your thoughts and coloring your dreams, and solving problems by moving your hands instead of thinking. by Back to Work
71 min listen
61: I Handed Him My Luke: TOPIC: Infrastructure for Staying in Touch by Back to Work
70 min listen
11: Johnny Heuristic: Merlin Mann joins Dan Benjamin to talk about evolution, investing in roulette, taking smarter chances and futureproofing your passion. by Back to Work
79 min listen
2: Picture of a Boat: Merlin Mann and Dan Benjamin formulate a five-minute warning tactic before discussing the reality of bringing change to your company, some patterns that work for startups, solving the right problem at the right level, why you can’t find the innovation but by Back to Work
69 min listen
38: Sorry. You Can't Have a Candle.: On improving presentation culture. Dan and Merlin talk about bombing the deck, advancing the slides, and striving to improve the self-perpetuating bad culture of presentations. Slide?!? (Also, kid germs in the spaghetti, meeting the angry corn gu by Back to Work
79 min listen
8: Little Velvet Hands: This week, Merlin Mann and Dan Benjamin eighty-six their restaurant jobs—emptying grease traps, handling logs of meat, and sharing what they learned by bringing mostly bad food to America's table. Dan burns velvet hands, Merlin's Mom gives the guy with th by Back to Work
73 min listen
5: Chigger Bites on the Bus Driver: Merlin Mann and Dan Benjamin talk about the black art of paying attention to the right things, how lamps are no substitute, that it's hard whether you’re working from home or a cube, being honest about your expertise before looking for independence, and t by Back to Work
80 min listen
24: The Daddy for your Destiny: Dan's in a closet, but Merlin has a lot of FU from the last show: good jobs don't get posted on Craigslist and while you may not know what's gonna happen next, you're not just gonna install Xcode and retire on your angry bird so either do your research, g by Back to Work
93 min listen
22: My Baby Likes Aluminum Foil!: This week, Merlin and Dan share their Pick: The Macintosh Computer. Also, a 17-minute experimental startup sound, catching conflicts, shivving the stagecoach, machine-gunning with SoundMaster, the dangers of ResEdit, and the future of recumbent bike ba by Back to Work
71 min listen
17: Brick Building Full of Lies: Merlin Mann and Dan Benjamin talk about checking email under the table to catch up on your 27 high priority tasks, a good time to use the word priority, blowing cycles on meeting with Narnia's stakeholders, and getting tasks out of your dreamcatcher. by Back to Work
86 min listen
30: I'm Not Working in an Abattoir: With Dan on sabbatical, Merlin is joined by Jonathan Coulton to talk about traveling, horn sections, and Jonathan’s new album, "Artificial Heart." by Back to Work
61 min listen
34: Rectangular Door Conspiracy: How to say "no." Merlin talks with Dan about saying No to toilet paper diamonds, mints on pillows, and things you don't have the wallet for instead of saying Yes to a crate of bananas you don't have enough information about or giving a qualified Yes to by Back to Work
65 min listen
36: Writing on the Wind: Merlin Mann talks with Dan Benjamin about his dogged obsession with the flexibility of index cards—for propping up tables, giving very small cuts, and getting babies hygienically removed. Then, there is much talk of graphing your focal length against your by Back to Work
82 min listen
3: The Second Arrow: Merlin Mann and Dan Benjamin discuss ADD, Buddhism, mindfulness, concentration, and insight. by Back to Work
71 min listen
15: Marionette of my own Design: Merlin Mann and Dan Benjamin are here to discuss the awareness of fear, asking yourself why, and knowing the problem instead of chasing fake confidence, patches, and hacks. by Back to Work
60 min listen
21: Assistant TO the Regional Monkey: Merlin and Dan talk about the problem of permanent zeroes, desiring not to desire, why "hypocrisy" is killing you, stepping back on the path without apologizing, Merlin's new tattoo, and—yeah—going a little easier on yourself. Also, how almost everythi by Back to Work
62 min listen
23: Failure is ALWAYS an Option: This week, Dan and Merlin determine that even the Chico Marx of notebooks is the right one if you're writing in it, failure is ALWAYS an option: fully committing didn't do Pickett any good, but you should commit to narrowing scope and deciding what succes by Back to Work
78 min listen
42: Coconut Headphones: This week Dan and Merlin talk about asking good questions instead of massaging your real problem until it fits the comforting solution you found on the cover of a magazine. by Back to Work
76 min listen
20: Muscle of Failure: Merlin and Dan talk about getting started, putting on your shoes instead of shopping for pedometers, false dilemmas, doing as much work with your hands as you've done in your head, why you should leave some water in the pump, meta-fiddling, and getting be by Back to Work
73 min listen
26: Spaghetti Guy Hits Close to Home: This week Wutang Dan and The MZA bring the ruckus to finding a job, selling your Mustang, and putting your house on the market: remember that you can't negotiate with reality, Merlin can't do anything to make you love him, enthusiasm is irreplaceable, and by Back to Work
93 min listen

More Episodes from Back to Work

Skip carousel

Episode 644: A Tony Bennett Hair Hat: It hurts every time. by Back to Work
61 min listen
Episode 643: The Price of Lies: Merlin thinks LLMs have raised the bar for voice assistants in general and Siri in particular. Dan and his kid watch the excellent HBO series, "Chernobyl." by Back to Work
89 min listen
Episode 642: A Better Roll of Toilet Paper: Your hosts discuss facial hair, notebooks, the metric system, flexing about local weather, and becoming the bathroom supplies you want to see in the world. by Back to Work
103 min listen
Episode 640: Bob's Big Mess: A classic odds n' sods episode. Plus, Merlin has thoughts about memory and ecosystems, and Dan is considering jetting through an eclipse. by Back to Work
80 min listen
Episode 641: Germans in the Wild: Travel is not always about traveling, but it is definitely always about your life. by Back to Work
77 min listen
Episode 639: The Commodore's Club: Dan talks about what he's learned from traveling a bunch, and Merlin thinks a lot of weirdness comes from our twin fears of boredom and inconvenience. by Back to Work
76 min listen
Episode 638: A New Kind of Bullet: A classic odds n' sods episode. by Back to Work
134 min listen
Episode 637: The Minimally Viable Log Cabin Channel: A deep dive on being busy versus being time-constrained. by Back to Work
95 min listen
Episode 636: Honoring My Pivot Table: Dan is navigating the landscape of task management apps, and, shockingly, Merlin has some thoughts. by Back to Work
81 min listen
Episode 635: Buffet de Canard: Dan and Merlin kick off the new year with a wide-ranging look at how tools and motivations evolve with how we work. by Back to Work
80 min listen
Episode 634: Nominally Future-Resistant: A fairly epic episode covering health tracking and self-quantization. Remember: data doesn't have to hurt. by Back to Work
81 min listen
Episode 633: A Self-Aware Old Man: Your hosts talk about how we perceive the world and the challenge of mindfully updating our perceptions. by Back to Work
58 min listen
Episode 632: Big Strong Beef Boy: Dan and Merlin are excited about technologies that have found a place in their lives. What a blessed season of thanks! by Back to Work
83 min listen
Episode 631: Little Bit of Dirty Grey: Merlin has more on generative AI, and Dan has a sweet new watch. by Back to Work
71 min listen
Episode 630: Monchichabowsky: On AI and curiosity. by Back to Work
75 min listen
Episode 629: Benjamin Franklin's Disease: And and Merlin have a wide-ranging discussion. by Back to Work
51 min listen
Episode 628: Beating Yourself Up at Scale: Talk of eyes, intentionalities, and HDMI. by Back to Work
58 min listen
Episode 627: Unscheduled Dirt Event: Merlin claims he's not going to do any work for this one, and Dan has some advice for travelers. by Back to Work
67 min listen
Episode 626: Chekhov's Lightsaber: Your hosts catch up on some great media, and Merlin expounds on the magic of Channels. Also, Merlin logrolls a recent podcast episode and re-extolls the power of dictation. by Back to Work
71 min listen
Episode 625: Chapters of Madness: Dan and Merlin have a wide-ranging discussion. by Back to Work
45 min listen
Episode 624: Rectangle Time: Dan and Merlin have a wide-ranging discussion about technology, and Merlin lays the groundwork for several spirited rants. by Back to Work
54 min listen
Episode 623: My Terrible Adhesion: Over the course of this classic Odds n' Sods episode, it becomes clear that all Merlin cares about is babies and 3D printing. by Back to Work
61 min listen
Episode 622: A Gentleman's Malt Liquor: Dan returns from a nice trip, and Merlin has been printing lizards. by Back to Work
74 min listen
Episode 621: Hairy Legs and the Whole Nine: You’re either early or you’re late; leave time for a flat tire; have you tried melatonin?; a new search engine and some enthusiasm for blogs. by Back to Work
70 min listen
Episode 620: Happy to be a Chair: With Merlin on the mend, your hosts discuss actors named Hurt, comic books, and old Macs. by Back to Work
58 min listen
Episode 619: A Beautiful Jam-Up: A self-hypnosis recommendation leads to another look at meditation (as well as not-meditation), plus Merlin has a few more beta finds that contribute to the Tiny Life Improvement Project. by Back to Work
75 min listen
Episode 618: The Living Room Test: Dan sets up his little office, your hosts talk about the new Apple dingus, and Merlin highlights some strong OS updates. by Back to Work
67 min listen
Episode 617: Trailer for the Future: Dan needs your help with a flooring dilemma, and your hosts share some thoughts on WWDC announcements. by Back to Work
71 min listen
Episode 616: Archipelagos of Functionality: Dan dives deep on his Sonos setup, and Merlin explores official state things. by Back to Work
71 min listen
Episode 615: An Attractive Nuisance by Back to Work
76 min listen

Related podcast episodes

Skip carousel

#362: There Is No Mermaid: Knowledge Fight by Knowledge Fight
116 min listen
422: Magic Rub by Back to Work
71 min listen
Writing and the Art of Not Knowing by ALOUD @ Los Angeles Public Library
80 min listen
The Adam Project: Not one Adam. BUT TWO! This week Nando DJ and Diggins travel to probably Vancouver and watch the movie that had the most Netflix something something something of all time, the Adam Project. They nitpick the guns, the ships, and of course the lightsabers. by Mostly Nitpicking
170 min listen
Episode 224: Reviews of Beowulf, Canopy, and Shadows on the Grave #1 and #2: Hwæt! by The Comics Alternative
85 min listen
#130B: Endgame, Part 2: Knowledge Fight by Knowledge Fight
107 min listen
Define Dork: How do you define “dork”? by Dork Matters
2 min listen
Ep 86 Charles Dickens The Unparalleled Necromancer: Did you know Charles Dickens of The Christmas Carol fame, of Nickolas Nickelby, David Copperfield, A Tale of Two Cities, and many more stories, was also an amateur magician? Indeed he was. Now hear all about it! OH, and when you finish hearing about ... by The Magic Detective Podcast
38 min listen
The Rituals of Infinity (sort of) with KEK-W: After getting caught between worlds and never managing to quite hook it up, through a radio link between Earths 2 and 5 we finally get it together to discuss Moorcock with comics luminary and 2000AD Script Droid KEK-W! We talk Moorcock, The Ritu... by Breakfast in the Ruins
83 min listen
485: Travis County, P.I.: Main topic involves some thoughts on the Apple betas and the tantalizing future that they imply. by Back to Work
75 min listen
Episode 427: In Defense of Lanky by Radio Free Nintendo
128 min listen
KunstlerCast #193: Listener Mail Bag: David Brooks Does a 180 on the Burbs, Etc. by KunstlerCast - Suburban Sprawl: A Tragic Comedy
35 min listen
Ep.117 – Enerjak's Necronopolis Zone (Archie Sonic) by The Sonic Hustle (Formerly The Sonic Shuffle)
87 min listen
#187: Magic Cheesecloth and Secret Pleiadians: Knowledge Fight by Knowledge Fight
92 min listen
Episode 217 Spoiler Alert --WandaVision and The Snyder Cut: SPOILER ALERT Tonight Dan, Chris, Marty, Robb and David come together to talk all things Comics. We get into WandaVision , The Snyder cut extensively and we give some thoughts on Invincible, the new Loki Trailer and our thoughts on the 1st two... by The Geek Allstars
149 min listen
RCR Episode 261: Cause the Commodordian is Keeping Up With You: Panelists: Paul Hagstrom (hosting), Quinn Dunki, and Carrington Vanston Topic: Cause the Commodordian Is Keeping Up With You 1961 was all fine and good, but someone has made an accordion out of two Commodore 64s and a bunch of floppy disks. by Retro Computing Roundtable
114 min listen
Darker Days Radio Episode #20: This week, Vince and Mark take a step back, and speak with Richard Dansky, from the Classic World of Darkness line, and currently working for Ubisoft as Central Clancy Writer. Check it out! Email: Darkerdaysradio@gmail.com, http://www.darkerdays.tk, ... by Darker Days Radio
80 min listen
Duncan's Next Half-Day Speaker Project: After a visit to chez Tweak to hear the always-improving desktop system, Darren decided to push Duncan into a project the best way he knew how: by giving him a pair of Seas Excel tweeters and posing the question, "what if you had state-of-the-art soft domes in that thing?" Talking, of course, about Duncan's improbably excellent 2-day speaker project, and in this episode the guys talk about the next possible iteration of the silly little first-order gems. Listener questions are answered, a blind study on network switches is shared, and the album of the week ventures into Brazilian tradition. by The Hifi Podcast with Darren and Duncan
90 min listen
Comedy 4 Cast: The Slow Down, Chapter 14(041423): Serving up Audio Comedy since 2005! by The Mutual Audio Network
13 min listen
469: Israel, Jr.: Some thoughts on engaging versus escaping right now. by Back to Work
79 min listen
#259 – Darth Vader, Howard the Duck, Spider-Man by This Week in Marvel
111 min listen
PS/SS, Book Wrap: A Tale of Two Titles (LIVE): → Episode 8 recap: Mirror of Erised/Horcruxes, Quirrell, The Color Green, Dumbledore the Snitch?→ Special Feature Recap: International Book Covers→ PQOTW responses→ Avada Kedavra = dead? Yes?... by Alohomora!: The Original Harry Potter Re-Read
89 min listen
Episode 222: Granite Cocks vs Robot Overlords: David and Tamler wind their way through the long-requested “Meditations on Moloch” by Scott Alexander, a comprehensive account of the coordination problems (personified by Allan Ginsberg’s demon-entity Moloch) that lead to human misery and values tossed out the window. Does Alexander’s rationalist conception of human nature ignore the work of VBW favorites like Joe Henrich and Robert Frank? Is he a little too friendly to the neo-social Darwinism view of some guy named Nick Land? And oh no, why does he have to go transhumanist at the end?! Plus, we talk about the unique comic vision of Norm Macdonald and why we loved him. by Very Bad Wizards
111 min listen
320 Under the circus tent of knowledge with Dan Cummins: "If you tried to govern people by the rules of the bible it would be a bloody mess and women would be treated like property." TRR # 320 Under the circus tent of knowledge with Dan Cummins! Listen here > https://bit.ly/37hmW4C Dan Cummins is a comedia by Tom Rhodes Smart Camp
98 min listen
Dan Explores Dickensian London!: Just as Scrooge wandered London's streets on a cold Christmas night, Dan Snow follows the ghosts of Charles Dickens' past to discover the city that inspired his greatest works with London-born tour guide David Charnick. by Dan Snow's History Hit
49 min listen
David Nicholls - You're Booked Archive All-Stars: David Nicholls - You're Booked Archive All-Stars by You're Booked
65 min listen
Sheepdog Brain (ft. Dean Kissick) by Our Struggle
157 min listen
Dennis Duncan, "Index, a History of The: A Bookish Adventure from Medieval Manuscripts to the Digital Age" (W.W. Norton, 2022): An interview with Dennis Duncan by New Books in Early Modern History
63 min listen
Bad at Sports Episode 148: Mary Rachel Fanning/ Diane Grams: This week: First, some generally embarrassing banter, Duncan discusses his dance career, we talk about Richard's terminal nerd-dom, and eventually introduce the show. Brian and Richard have announcements Second, Terri and Serena interview... by Bad at Sports
79 min listen

Discover this podcast and so much more

Episode 456: Urinal Cup

Episode 456: Urinal Cup

Description

Titles in the series (100)

More Episodes from Back to Work

Related podcast episodes